Food product machines, particularly high speed slicers, produce groups of food products; those groups may be stacked vertically or may be shingled. Food patty forming machines product food product including formed meat patties. The food products may be conveyed away from the food product machine by a main conveyor. The groups of food products are supplied to packaging equipment, such as a fill and package apparatus, in a food product stream to be packaged for shipment. The food products as received from the food product machine may not be in a preferred predefined position or orientation on the conveyor to facilitate optimum or efficient downstream processing, such as packaging.
Sliced food products may be formed from a slicer such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,628,237, 5,974,925, herein incorporated by reference, and commercially available as a FX180® slicer machine. The slicer may also be such as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 60/999,961, herein incorporated by reference, and commercially available as a PowerMax4000™ slicer available from Formax Inc. of Mokena, Ill., USA. Formed food products may be made by a patty forming machine such as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,952,478; 4,054,967; 4,182,003; and 4,329,828, and PCT published applications WO 99/62344, and WO 2005/02766782 A2, herein incorporated by reference, or those commercialized by Formax, Inc. of Mokena, Ill., including the F-26™, ULTRA26™, Maxum700®, F-19™, F-400™, or F-6™ patty forming machines.
In one type of fill and package apparatus for sliced food products, a slicer delivers groups of slices or “drafts” onto a conveyor. The drafts are conveyed spaced-apart in a stream to a staging conveyor where the stream is converted to lateral rows of drafts. Such a staging conveyor is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,149, herein incorporated by reference, and commercially available as the A*180 Autoloader from Formax, Inc. of Mokena, Ill., U.S.A. Alternatively, the drafts may be placed on the conveyor by the slicing machine in lateral rows of drafts alleviating the need of a staging conveyor. Fill and package apparatus for sliced or formed food products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,065,936 or 7,328,542, which are herein incorporated by reference.
In one type of fill and package apparatus for formed food products, the patty forming machine delivers a formed food product or a stack of food products onto an output conveyor. When formed food products are provided as a stack of food products, a food product forming machine may eject a number of food products on top of one another before the food products are advanced by the output conveyor. Also, a paper interleaving device such as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 60/730,304, which is hereby incorporated by reference, and commercially available from Formax Inc., may be placed at the output of the food product forming machine to interleave paper between each food product in a food product stack. Whether the food products lay individually or in stacks on the output conveyor, the food products may be arranged in transverse rows.
The food product groups must be maintained within close tolerances, particularly as to weight; under-weight groups constitutes a potential fraud on the ultimate users and overweight groups may represent an appreciable loss of revenue to the plant operator. Even with the most sophisticated and technologically advanced controls, the slicing machines and like food product machines that produce the groups of food products may not always maintain those groups within the preset tolerance limits. This is particularly true when the food product machine first starts in operation and again whenever there is any change in operation, such as a change from one food loaf to another in the operation of a food loaf slicer or a change of bacon slabs in a bacon slicer. Moreover, even those food products that are within the preset tolerance, known as “accept” groups, must be transported to a packaging station or other utilization location.
To minimize waste, it is desirable to correct any out-of-tolerance or “reject” food product groups. A check weight conveyor, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,997,089 and 5,499,719, and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/729,957, and Ser. No. 11/454,143, may be used to divert rejected food products to an off-weight stream or food product correction stream or location. When rejected food products are taken out of the main food product stream a food product vacancy is created in the food product stream.
The present inventors have recognized that in order to maintain a highly efficient utilization of the packaging equipment and other downstream operations, it is desirable to maintain a food product stream with a reduced number or no food product vacancies. Moreover, the present inventors recognize that it would be desirable to fill such vacancies with substitute or corrected-weight food products from a second location. The present inventors have recognized it would be desirable to fill the vacancies with food products that were diverted from the main food product stream and corrected at a correction station.